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A new father shares why creating an email address for his baby boy is the perfect gift

His first email may end up being the best one he ever gets.

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An X post by a new father has been making other new parents take note online. It’s regarding a gift and investment he wishes to give his newborn son for when he gets older. It’s not a savings bond. It’s not a car. It’s not even an heirloom. It’s an email address.

@Mellumjr on X shared that he created a new email address for his son. He intends on sending every photo and achievement his child has made to that email address then giving his son the password to that email address when he gets older. This way, the child can have a time capsule full of memories and thoughts from his father during that time to look through and read.



Comments overflowed all over social media, praising this idea.

“So cool! I wish I knew that before.”

“This is the silver lining!..he will always have that!....what a beautiful resource for your son 🥰💕”

“I don’t have kids, but I think this is a fantastic idea!”

Others had already taken the initiative.

“I actually did that for my daughter years before I got pregnant,” replied @Timberowl. “I would write to her about how I couldn’t wait to meet her some day. I sent pics of her ultrasounds and how excited I was. I emailed her while I was in labor, expressing my fear and excitement.”

“I started this in 2016, and have about 300 emails sent to my daughter. Just don’t know when to give her the pw and email. Maybe when she gets married one day,” @juju_f_baby12 commented.

“Exactly what I did for all my 3 kids,” said @heyfarrukh. “My eldest turned 12 two days ago and got the password. All three are also a part of a family photo album shared on Google Photos highlighting their achievements and memorable moments.”

Ever since the invention of the photograph, parents have been taking pictures of their children for prosperity purposes and memories to carry with them and to pass on to future generations. Even before then there were painted portraits for the same reason. While it is special to have a a physical family photo album or scrapbook for your child, the sad reality is that there is a chance it could be lost, misplaced, or destroyed in an accident.

In the digital age, it’s common for parents to save pictures in the cloud and set up hard drives as well to make sure that those images of their kids can be safely retained. One can argue that the best method is to have pictures saved in the cloud, on a hard drive, and with physical copies to cover all bases. Even critical commenters pointed out to @Mellumjr that the email address could automatically be erased if it wasn't regularly active.

But it’s not just photos that make this a wonderful gift to a child. With an email in their name, with those pictures could come messages from the past from a new parent. Videos of moments with time stamps and comments made from the parent to their future adult child. An archive of not just pictures memories that could be revisited on other platforms, but also one-on-one, just-for-them correspondence. A modern, more convenient version of parents writing letters to their future kids.

Who knows, it could turn into their day-to-day email address in which they could revisit their past whenever they want, and recall how much they were loved. There’s no one way to save a memory. Just make sure you have enough storage space, on the bookshelf or in your data plan.

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13 comics use 'science' to hilariously illustrate the frustrations of parenting.

"Newton's First Law of Parenting: A child at rest will remain at rest ... until you need your iPad back."

All images by Jessica Ziegler

Kids grab everywhere.


Norine Dworkin-McDaniel's son came home from school one day talking about Newton's first law of motion.

He had just learned it at school, her son explained as they sat around the dinner table one night. It was the idea that "an object at rest will remain at rest until acted on by an external force."

"It struck me that it sounded an awful lot like him and his video games," she joked.

A writer by trade and always quick to turn a phrase, Norine grabbed a pen and scribbled some words:

"Newton's First Law of Parenting: A child at rest will remain at rest ... until you need your iPad back."

And just like that, she started creating "The Science of Parenthood," a series that names and identifies hilarious, universal parenting struggles. She put in a quick call to her friend Jessica Ziegler, a visual and graphics expert, and together the two set out to bring the project to life.

Here are some of their discoveries:

1. Newton's first law of parenting

parents, babies, parenthood

A taste of the “gimmies."

2. The sleep geometry theorem

teenagers, science of parenthood, science

There’s plenty of room.

3. The baby fluids effusion rule

baby fluids, adults, babies

Duck.

4. The carnival arc

avoidance, county fair, town

Can we go?

5. The Archimedes bath-time principle

bath time, bubbles, clean up

Clean up the clean up.

6. Schrödinger's backpack

homework, school, responsibility

Homework... ehh.

7. The naptime disruption theorem

naps, doorbells, sleep deprivation

Who needs sleep. It’s rhetorical.

8. Calculation disintegration

math, education, calculator

I have a calculator on my phone.

9. Chuck e-conomics

economics, resources, toys

How much does that cost?

10. Plate tectonics

food, picky eaters, fussy eaters

Where’s the chicken tenders?

11. Silicaphobia

beach, sand, vacation

Oh good, sunburns.

12. Delusions of launder

laundry, chores, home utilities

When did we get all these clothes?

13. The Costco contradiction

Costco, name brands, comic

I want them now, not then.

Norine and Jessica's work struck a nerve with parents everywhere.

Norine said almost every parent who sees the cartoons has a similar reaction: a quiet moment of recognition, followed by a huge laugh as they recognize their own families in the illustrations.

But is there more to it than just getting a few chuckles? You bet, Norine and Jessica said.

"Even, at the worst possible moments, you're standing there, your child has just vomited all over you, or you've opened up the diaper and your kid is sitting waist deep in liquid ****. Even at that moment, it's not really that bad," Norine said. "You will be able to laugh at this at some point."

"It gets better. You're not alone in this parenting thing."


This article originally appeared on 11.30.16

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'Best day of your life': Great-grandmother has some unforgettable advice for young parents

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Photo credit: Canva

A mother stressed out in the kitchen.

It’s interesting to think about the moments that will stick out to us as the best when we reach the end of our lives. Will it be the dramatic events such as having a child or graduating college? Will it be the day we met our spouse or that incredible concert you saw on a warm summer night in your 30s?

Will it be the day you got a job promotion or your first apartment? Will the best times be in a specific decade—your teens, 50s, or even 70s?

Torchy Swinson, an 84-year-old great-grandmother of 6, grandmother of 5, and mother of 3, believes the best days of your life may be happening right now, but you may not realize it. They may even be the ones you forget.

Swinson shared her thoughts on the best days of a parent’s life in a TikTok post that has received over 240,000 views.

@torchyswinson2

#youngmothers

“I just want to tell you something,” she said, looking straight into the camera. “It's six o'clock. You're in the kitchen, you're making Hamburger Helper. Your husband just got home from work, you hear him in the living room with the kids. They're playing, laughing, they're giggling. It makes your heart feel good.”

“You don't know it yet, but this just might be one of the best days of your life,” she continued.

When are the best days of your life?

To Swinson, the best days of your life are those that, at the time, you may feel are ordinary—when you are spending time with your loved ones. But the thing is, they really aren’t that ordinary. An 84-year-old woman may only have her child living with her for a quarter or less of her life. And during the later years, the child is mostly gone.

Swinson lost her husband 5 years ago and she’d probably do anything to have him back in her life. So, if we think about it, ordinary days are really quite spectacular. The post received over 750 comments, many of which were from people who were thankful for the reminder to embrace our everyday lives.

"You are so right; ordinary days are truly the best. I love the. More than big events,” Jill wrote. "We don’t even realize it, do we," Deb added. Brooke shared that her mother gave her the same advice: "My mom tells me this all the time. I embrace the craziness and the messiness. Great wisdom."

"As a kid, when my mom was making the Hamburger Helper, I didn’t realize those were some of the best days ever,” Nick recalled.

How much time do people spend with their kids throughout their lives?

A widely circulated but hard-to-document statistic going viral across social media states that 75% of the time we spend with our children is over by the age of 12. Further, by age 18, we will have spent 90% of the time we will ever have with our children.

@beneaththesheetz

Data says that 75% of the time you will ever spend with your child is complete by the time they reach 12 years old. And by the time they turn 18…90%. Would love to hear what y’all do in your homes 👇🏽 #smartphones #socialmedia #mentalhealth #parenting #childrenfirst

Whether the stat is 100% correct or not doesn’t matter. The critical fact is that our time with our kids is limited and we will see them less and less once they become teenagers. One day, they will leave the house and possibly start a family. By the time we reach Swinson’s age, there probably isn’t anything she wouldn’t trade for having one more summer’s day in the yard blowing bubbles for her kids or sitting down to have dinner and asking them what they did at school.

Even if they’re typical kids and probably won’t remember what they did in school.

So, thank you, Mr. Swinson, for sharing some perspective you can only have in your 80s. Hopefully, it will provide some solace to stressed-out parents, help them appreciate the messiness of parenthood, and remind them to be extra present with their kids whenever possible.

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Parents share their kids' hilarious reactions to learning about how sex works

Kids really do say the darndest things.

Photo by Cassidy Dickens on Unsplash, @meganmuircoyle/Twitter, @Laruazaugg/Twitter

One of the greatest parenting milestones is the day you get to explain to your children the basics of sex.

Sometimes that day arrives because a kid bluntly asks how babies are made, sometimes parents bring it up so their kids to hear it from them before they hear it from other people, and sometimes it's a result of an unexpected encounter (like a kid walking in on their parents doing the deed).

However you arrive at it, that initial conversation is always interesting. No matter how prepared you think you are, some awkward hilarity is inevitable as you navigate those new waters. Sex is pretty simple on the one hand, but quite complicated on the other, and figuring what details to share at what stage is a tricky balancing act.


Some kids are open and curious and ask a million questions. Some kids are quiet and reserved and process it all in their own sweet time. But the first reaction of most pre-pubescent kids when they first hear about the mechanics of sex, even if you introduce it in a sex-positive way, is something along the lines of "What?? Are you serious? EW." And when they connect the dots that their parents had sex in order for them to be alive, the reaction gets even funnier.

A thread on Twitter illustrates how true this is as parents share their children's reactions to hearing about the birds and the bees.

Clearly, Megan has three kids. Logic.

Some kids let questions slip out before thinking about whether they really want to know the answer. Once you know it, you can't unknow it. Sorry, kiddo.

@meganmuircoyle On a summer walk my 1 boy(9) was asking ? about sex & I explained everything. My husband was away f… https://t.co/0hHQQxUFgt— arlene geerlinks (@arlene geerlinks) 1612372163.0

Parents have to be prepared for awkward questions, but sometimes you really can't predict what a kid might want to know. Kids aren't exactly known for having boundaries, and that's doubly true for a topic that's totally new for them.

Most of us don't like to imagine our parents having sex, so this is one area where kids who are adopted have somewhat of an advantage (until they learn that procreation isn't the only reason people have sex).

It's not just the questions, but the declarations that come along with kids learning about sex that can take parents by surprise.

It's always entertaining to see a kid's understanding move from innocence to reality.

@meganmuircoyle when he got older I told him about the cervix, contractions, labour etc and he was like "oh. okay.… https://t.co/u7mnCiVYUg— L. (@L.) 1612384726.0

And even more entertaining when you realize that you were the one who inadvertently introduced your kid to a sexual concept you may not have been prepared to discuss.

And then there are the unintentional misunderstandings that occur when kids don't get quite enough information.

Perhaps the funniest part about talking about sex with kids is how actually kind of weird the physical act really is when you think about it. Of course it seems absurd to children who haven't sexually developed yet.

In fact, some kids find it so weird, they literally don't believe it.

Like, what the heck with this design? And they don't even know at this point about the nitty-gritty details that you only really know once you've done it.

As funny as these stories are, the fact that parents are having open and honest conversations with their kids about sex is seriously awesome. Some people do their kids a disservice by being too creeped out to talk about it, or maybe worrying they'll give too much info, so they don't talk about it.

Whatever your moral perspectives on the topic, sex is part of life. It's basic health and biology. It's a human reality that everyone learns about one way or another, and it's generally better for kids to learn about sex from their parents than from their peers, who might give wrong information. Starting early by answering kids' questions matter-of-factly, giving age-appropriate details (which admittedly can be hard to discern), and bringing up the topic occasionally if your kids don't can help kids ease into a healthy understanding of sex.

While the basic mechanics conversation is indeed a parenting milestone, the best parent-child conversations about sex are ongoing and ever-expanding. Making consent and boundaries part of the conversation is vital as well. Some uncomfortable moments may be inevitable, but keep the line of communication wide open will go a long way toward helping kids prepare for what's to come.


This article originally appeared on 02.04.21

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